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Shiloh National Military Park
Shiloh National Military Park preserves the American Civil War Shiloh and Corinth battlefields. The main section of the park is in the unincorporated town of Shiloh, about nine miles (14 km) south of Savannah, Tennessee, with an additional area located in the city of Corinth, Mississippi, 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Shiloh. The Battle of Shiloh began a six-month struggle for the key railroad junction at Corinth. Afterwards, Union forces marched from Pittsburg Landing to take Corinth in a May siege, then withstood an October Confederate counter-attack. Shiloh battlefield The Battle of Shiloh was one of the first major battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The two-day battle, April 6 and April 7, 1862, involved about 65,000 Union troops under Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell and 44,000 Confederates under Albert Sidney Johnston (killed in the battle) and P.G.T. Beauregard. The battle resulted in nearly 24,000 killed, wounded, and missing. The two days of fighting did not end in a decisive tactical victory for either side—the Union held the battlefield but failed to pursue the withdrawing Confederate forces. Strategically, however, it was a decisive defeat for the Confederate forces that had concentrated to oppose Grant's and Buell's invasion through Tennessee. The battlefield is named after Shiloh Methodist Church, a small log church near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. The National Military Park was established on December 27, 1894. This was due to the request of local farmers, who were tired of their pigs rooting up the remains of soldiers that fell during the battle, and requested that the federal government do something about it. It was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the military park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. * Total area: 3996.64 acres (16.173 km²) * Federal area: 3941.64 acres (15.951 km²) * Nonfederal area: 55 acres (0.22 km²) Corinth battlefield After the Battle of Shiloh, the Union forces proceeded eventually to capture Corinth and the critical railroad junction there. On September 22, 2000, sites associated with the Corinth battlefield (see First and Second Battles of Corinth) were added to the park. Siege and Battle of Corinth Sites was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 6, 1991. , and Shiloh cemetery Shiloh National Cemetery is in the northeast corner of the park adjacent to the visitor center and bookstore. Buried within its are 3584 Union dead, of whom 2357 are unknown, who were reinterred in the new cemetery after the war in 1866. There are only two Confederate dead interred in the cemetery. The cemetery operations were transferred from War Department to the National Park Service in 1933. Shiloh Indian Mounds Site The Shiloh battlefield has within its boundaries the well preserved prehistoric Shiloh Indian Mounds Site, which is a National Historic Landmark. The site was inhabited by a late Woodland or early Mississippian culture until it was abandoned sometime in the period from 1200 to 1300 CE. See also * Memphis and Charleston Railroad * List of Mississippian sites References * The National Parks: Index 2001-2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior. External links * NPS website: Shiloh National Military Park * Civil War Trails Category:1894 establishments Category:Alcorn County, Mississippi Category:American Civil War battlefields Category:Archaeological sites in Mississippi Category:Archaeological sites in Tennessee Category:Hardin County, Tennessee Category:National Battlefields and Military Parks of the United States Category:National Historic Landmarks in Tennessee Category:National Historic Landmarks in Mississippi Category:Museums in Hardin County, Tennessee Category:American Civil War museums in Tennessee Category:Native American museums in Tennessee Category:Archaeology museums in Tennessee Category:United States National Park Service areas in Mississippi